Web filtering internationally, part 1: China

As well as talking about how different cultures view spam, I also wanted to talk about how Web filtering needs to behave differently, depending on the culture.

So, this week on Security Levity... how China views Web filtering.

It should be no surprise that the Chinese government is sensitive about certain forms of speech. We in the West may not like it, but that's the reality today.

One point of view is that China practices "abhorrent" state censorship, and that the economic reform started by Deng Xiaoping is just another form of anti-Western, Marxist ideology. An alternative point of view is that Chinese society is on a journey, in transition from its own unique form of Marxism -- "Maoism" -- to a free and open society.

This debate aired recently in the technology world, when it emerged that Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft acceded to Chinese government requests to block certain search terms and results in their search engines. It caused some controversy in the West: the debate mainly centering around the question of whether it's better to work inside the Chinese system, or to stand outside.

We can seek to encourage change in the Chinese government's way of thinking either by isolating the People's Republic from our technology, or by positively motivating their transition to open, democratic freedoms -- in the hope of encouraging change from within. The reality is that, in order to do business in China today, Web filtering products -- such as those produced by Commtouch's licensees -- need to have a different philosophy than they do in the West.

In the West, Web filters prevent users from downloading malicious content or "wasting" time on Facebook; but in China, there are additional considerations. If a vendor wants to sell a web filter in China, the product must first gain government approval.

Solutions are expected to be able to block additional, specific types of content. The biggest emphasis is on blocking Falun Gong Web sites, and other sites that are usually classified as "religious" in nature. (Falun Gong has been a proscribed organization since 1999, along with other so-called "heterodox religions" and "evil cults".)

I don't really want to add to the debate about state censorship in this blog post; we don't really have the space to open that can of worms. But whichever way you look at it, the fact remains that the Chinese culture is, as I said previously, very different from the culture in North America or Europe. Web filtering is just another example of these huge differences.

Here's the underlying issue: the Chinese government's definition of "Web threat" is different from yours and mine. Vendors can either work with the state -- helping their transition to a free, open, capitalist democracy -- or they can refuse to do business in a country whose laws they disagree with. As ever, feel free to add your comments.

At Commtouch, we don't make end-user products: our partners license our technologies to build into their solutions. So our job is to choose to allow vendors who integrate our Web filtering engine to comply with these and other counties' laws. We do this by being careful to categorize Web sites in such a way that our OEM partners can expose the functionality to their customers -- if they think that's appropriate.

 
This has been the first in an series of posts about how different cultures view web filtering. In a few weeks, I plan to talk about Iran and other Islamic states that practice Sharia law. Let me know if there are other parts of the world that you're particularly interested in.

I want to make this an interactive place: where I can answer questions and cover topics that you suggest. Feel free to add comments and ask Amir!

Amir Lev is the CTO, President, and co-founder of Commtouch (NASDAQ:CTCH), an e-mail and Web defense technology provider. MORE...